« Actor, coder, hero, risk-taker, Masi Oka
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One thing I love about being bilingual is that I can pick up these weird views on the Korean language and its romanisations systems. Apparently the recent Pusan International Film Festival not only brought films to the people, but it also brought up the discrepancies in the romanisation system. The “p” in “Pusan” apparently confused the foreigners because many of them are used to “Busan”. It strikes me funny that a single letter can cause that much confusion amongst the foreigners.

Then again, I don’t blame them for being confused. I am not confused by the romanisations, but I am stuck in the middle of the two systems: McCune-Reischauer and the Revised Romanisation. I’m the prime example of someone who grew up with the MR system in place, but then in my teens, they decided to get rid of the MR system and replace it with the RR one.

What’s funny, though, is that when I was in fifth grade, I started to learn the Hangeul alphabet. I remember clearly being baffled by the MR system’s spelling. I asked my mum why was “Gwangju” spelled with a “K” instead of with a “G” when the Korean alphabet uses the consonant that’s equivalent to the letter “G”? Or why was it “Taegu” and not “Daegu”? My mum didn’t know how to explain it, so I just decided to go with the flow and accept those spellings as default.

When the RR came into place, I sort of rejoiced and sort of growled about it. After years of typing “Pusan”, “Taejon”, “Kunsan”, and “Cheju-do”, it wasn’t easy trying to switch over to “Busan”, “Daejon”, “Gunsan”, and “Jeju-do”. Now, I see more of the RR system in place, but here and there, I still do see the MR influence, and all I can do is laugh in exasperation and hope that everything becomes consistent one day.


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« Actor, coder, hero, risk-taker, Masi Oka
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hmm… must get awkward at times having it changed


You know what Tara, I kinda can’t stand the Korean romanisations. It confuses me and it confuses others while I’m learning it. One time I couldn’t figure out a word and I had to look at the Hangul to figure it out less I sound like a jack butt when I said it out loud. I’d probably still sound like a jack butt in the end raspberry You should hear me say something in Mandarin! lol


@Lan—Really?  Well, er, DAS doesn’t look too bad? XD Could be worse!

@MissKang—You hate it?  I don’t mind the new romanisations.  I just wished they had used that system to begin with, really!

@Mia—Hahaha, move here!  Hit me up when you get here. XD


I so need to move to korea.


No idea. I guess they’re just bored.


lol Why didn’t they just change it before?


lol Yeah. Kind of like how they think Korea is the Japanese way so some people spell it Corea.


Seriously? hahaha


I hate it to. Supposedly it’s because they think it’s the Japanese way of thinking. -.-;


Did you know they had to rename my HS from Taegu to Daegu because the government just wouldn’t let it go? My graduating class was the last ones to have Taegu as the official name.



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